it outselleth others some pence in the bushel." A certain part of the county, near the S.-W. border, was formerly known as "the Dairies." Large dairy farms are still to be found there; but at present the chief dairy district of Cambridgeshire is the country between Cambridge and Ely, especially in and round the parish of Cottenham. Much cheese is made there, some of which is quite equal to Stilton.

Cambridgeshire is still, as in Fuller's days, rich in grain; with the difference that, since the draining of the fens, its wealth in that respect has increased tenfold. It is now one of the chief corn producing counties.

The drainage of the fens, and the great successive changes in that district, belong to the History of Cambridgeshire. The character of the fens, and the course and changes of the rivers, will be more fully described under the same head.

HISTORY.

§ 41. It is probable that what is now Cambridgeshire formed part of the country of the Iceni; or, at any rate, that it constituted their march or border land. The great dykes which covered the tract of open land extending between the fens and the forests of Essex (see post, Antiquities') may have been their work, although they may have been appropriated and strengthened by Anglian conquerors. The Romans intersected the country with good roads, and established one important station within it-Camboritum, which in all probability is represented by Cambridge,—although there was an important Roman camp at Granchester, not very far distant (see post, Antiquities'). Little is recorded of this county during the Roman period. It is certain, however, that those masters of road-making and embanking undertook and carried through great works on the northern border of the fens, extending through the Norfolk marshland (see post).

6

After the Anglians had established themselves in Norfolk and Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, then known as the country of the fenmen,— (called Gyrvii by Bede, 'H. E.' iii. 20; iv. 19,-the word is the A.-S. gyrwea fen), became a principality dependent on the East-Anglian kingdom. There were probably, indeed, two such principalities, as in the case of Norfolk and Suffolk,-since Bede describes Tonberht as prince of the "southern " Gyrvians. Tonberht was the first husband of Ætheldrythe, or Etheldreda, the great saint of Ely, whose history is given at length in Rte. 35. The connection of Etheldreda with Ely was the first event the results of which were afterwards to give prominence to Cambridgeshire; the second was the foundation of the University of Cambridge. If to these we add the drainage and cultivation of the fens, we have the three centres round which all the history of the county really gathers.

The actual foundation of St. Etheldreda was destroyed in that great Danish irruption which took place in the year 870, when St. Edmund of East Anglia was murdered, and afterwards took his place as a

national saint of at least equal dignity and importance with St. Etheldreda, and when other great monasteries of the fens-Thorney and Crowland-and the lesser house at Soham (see Rte. 35) were also destroyed. Cambridgeshire was included in the Danelagh, though how far it was colonised by Northmen, is most uncertain. At any rate, in the battle of Ringmere, 1010 (see SUFFOLK, Rte. 12), when the force of East Anglia, under Ulfcytel, in vain attempted to make stand against the Danes, the English army gave way and fled, save only the men of Cambridgeshire, who fought valiantly to the last. According to Henry of Huntingdon, the memory of their valour was preserved until the Conquest. ("Dum Angli regnaverunt, laus Grantebridgiensis provinciæ splendide floruit."-H. H., p. 207). Cambridge, after this battle, was burnt by the Danes; and it was during their advance thence southward, that Balsham (Rte. 41), is said to have suffered so greatly.

The great event in Cambridgeshire, during the period of the Conquest, is the siege and capture of the Isle of Ely, the "Camp of Refuge," which had received so many broken and desperate Englishmen. The story, so far as it is necessary to give it, will be found in Rte. 35. Much of the detail, and especially what is recorded of the famous Hereward, is of very doubtful authenticity; and even the statements in the Liber Eliensis,'-the chronicle of the Ely monastery must be received with caution. (The greater part of this chronicle will be found in Wharton's 'Anglia Sacra,' vol. i. A portion of itmuch more complete and accurate than Wharton's edition—was edited by the Rev. D. J. Stewart, for the Society called "Anglia Christiana," in 1848. Unfortunately only one volume was printed.)

There was some fighting in and round the Isle of Ely during the troubled reign of Stephen. The place was a strong natural fortress; and its possession was of importance to either side. During these struggles, Geoffry de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, was killed by an arrow before Burwell Castle (A.D. 1144. See Rte. 34). Ely was again ravaged during the war between King John and his barons; and suffered again during the "Barons' War" of Henry III.'s reign. In 1216, in King John's days, the great monastery was plundered, and the monks carried off, and obliged to pay considerable ransom. Cambridge, and the whole of Cambridgeshire, suffered much from both sides; and the Isle of Ely was more than once taken and retaken. Under Henry III., Ely was taken possession of by the Barons,-and again made a place of defence, whence foraging parties were sent out, who plundered the surrounding country,-at one time attacking Cambridge itself. The isle was then (A.D. 1268), blockaded by the king and Prince Edward, and was taken with little, if any, opposition. Among the barons who surrendered, was the Lord Wake-who claimed to be a lineal descendant of Hereward, the great hero in the defenceof the isle against the Conqueror.

These are the chief historical events connected with the Isle of Ely; but the importance of the place, and the conspicuous position which

it held in England down to the middle of the 16th century, were due almost entirely to the shrines of St. Etheldreda and her sisters, which formed the glory of the magnificent church, and which attracted to it crowds of pilgrims from all parts of the country. This has been duly noticed in the description of Ely (Rte. 35). The old fame of Hereward, and the defence of the isle, were not forgotten there; and the power of the bishop exceeded that of most other English prelates; but it was St. Etheldreda who, in truth, presided over Ely, and gave the place its great dignity and reputation; just as St. Edmund ruled the neighbouring portion of Suffolk. The two saints did much for their respective counties. Besides building noble churches and monasteries, they (or their representatives) were the great patrons of roadmaking (Rte. 35, Soham), and of agriculture; and it is probable that few parts of England were in better condition, or better cared for, than the monastic domains which surrounded Ely and Bury St. Edmund's.

The rise of the University of Cambridge is fully described in Rte. 33. It, of course, gave a prominence to the "Provincia Grantebrigiensis," which it had not before; and which has gone on steadily increasing, added to rather than diminished, by the great religious change of the 16th century.

During the civil war of the succeeding age, Cambridgeshire suffered little. Like Suffolk and Norfolk, it was one of the associated counties in which the king, according to Clarendon, "had not any visible party, nor one fixed quarter." This does not apply, however, to the University; which was, for the most part, loyal, and which contributed large supplies of money and plate to the royal cause. Cromwell took possession of Cambridge for the Parliament in 1643; and the Earl of Manchester, who was sent down to visit the University, expelled a great number of royalists. Cromwell was himself closely connected with Cambridgeshire. He possessed a considerable estate in the Isle of Ely, which had descended to him from his uncle, Sir Thomas Steward. This estate was held under the church of Ely, and consisted of the rectory of Ely, called the "Sectary," and of the tithes of the parishes of Holy Trinity and St. Mary. Cromwell, on the death of his uncle, in 1636, took possession of the rectory-house, and made it his constant residence, till he was chosen one of the members for Cambridge in the Parliament of 1640. (This house still exists, Rte. 35). Cromwell afterwards became Governor of Ely; and in January, 1643, made, says Carlyle, “a transient appearance in the cathedral one day, memorable to the Reverend Mr. Hitch and to us.” He had already written to Mr. Hitch, requiring him "to forbear altogether the choir service, so unedifying and offensive, lest the soldiers should in any tumultuary or disorderly way, attempt the reformation of the cathedral church." Mr. Hitch paid no attention, and Cromwell accordingly appeared in time of service, "with a rabble at his heels, and with his hat on," and ordered the "assembly" to leave the cathedral. Mr. Hitch paused for a moment, but soon recommenced; when "Leave off your fooling and come down, sir!"

said Oliver, in a voice still audible to this editor; which Mr. Hitch, did now instantaneously give his ear to."-Carlyle's 'Cromwell,' vol. i. p. 145, ed. 1857.

Henry Cromwell, son of the Protector, lived for some time, and died (1673), at Spinney Priory, near Ely. (See Rte. 35.)

King Charles himself, after his seizure at Holdenby by Cornet Joyce, was brought first to Childerley, near Cambridge (Rte. 39); and was conveyed thence to Newmarket (Rte. 34), and afterwards to Royston (Rte. 38), where he had removed from Hampton Court before setting up his standard. During this time, the Parliamentary army, under Fairfax and Cromwell, had their head-quarters at Kennet, near Newmarket; and held a general rendezvous on Triplow Heath, where they lay for some time; and another near Royston.

§ 42. The drainage of the fens ranks among the most interesting and important engineering operations ever undertaken in this country. The work has proceeded at different times. A brief account of it is all that can be given here. Those who desire a fuller history, may have recourse to Dugdale's 'History of Imbanking and Draining,' and to Smiles's 'Lives of the Engineers,' vol. i., where much curious information will be found.

The fen country of Cambridgeshire, forming all the northern portion of the county, is a part of a low-lying tract, situated at the junction of the counties of Lincoln, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Norfolk, commonly known as the Great Level of the Fens. "The area of this district presents almost the dimensions of a province, being from 60 to 70 miles from N. to S., and from 20 to 30 miles broad, the high lands of the interior bounding it somewhat in the form of a horseshoe. It contains about 680,000 acres of the richest land in England, and is as much the product of art as the kingdom of Holland, opposite to which it lies. It has been reclaimed and drained by the labour of successive generations of engineers; and it is only preserved for purposes of human habitation and culture by continuous watchfulness from day to day.

"Not many centuries ago, this vast tract of about 2000 square miles of land was entirely abandoned to the waters, forming an iminense estuary of the Wash, into which the rivers Witham, Welland, Glen, Nene, and Ouse discharged the rainfall of the central counties of England. It was an inland sea in winter, and a noxious swamp in summer, the waters expanding in many places into settled seas or meres, swarming with fish, and screaming with wild-fowl. The more elevated parts were overgrown with tall reeds, which appeared at a distance like fields of waving corn; and they were haunted by immense flocks of starlings, which, when disturbed, would rise in such numbers as almost to darken the air. Into this great dismal swamp the floods descending from the interior were carried, their waters mingling and winding by many devious channels before they reached the sea. They were laden with silt, which became deposited in the basin of the fens. Thus the river-beds were from time to time

choked up, and the intercepted waters forced new channels through the ooze, meandering across the level, and often winding back upon themselves, until at length the surplus waters, through many openings, drained away into the Wash. Hence the numerous abandoned beds of old rivers still traceable amidst the Great Level of the Fens-the old Nene, the old Ouse, and the old Welland. The Ouse, which in past times flowed into the Wash at Wisbech (or Ouse Beach), now enters at King's Lynn, near which there is another old Ouse. But the probability is, that all the rivers flowed into a lake, which existed on the tract known as the Great Bedford Level, from thence finding their way, by numerous and frequently shifting channels, into the sea.' Smiles.

The part of the Great Fen Level first reclaimed was that which lay on either shore of the Wash, and is now known as "Marshland in Norfolk, and "South Holland" in Lincolnshire. (For the Marshland, see NORFOLK, Rte. 30.) This reclamation was the work of the Romans, who employed British bondmen in the labour. The "Carr dyke," a great drain extending from the Nene to the Witham, is also supposed to be a Roman work. They laid down, too, causeways across the fens,-one of which extends from Denver, in Norfolk, over the Great Wash, to Charke; and thence to Marsh and Peterborougha distance of nearly 30 miles. These earlier works, however, along the coast, seem to have increased the inundations of the low-lying lands of the level. "Whilst they dammed the salt water out, they also held back the fresh, no provision having been made for improving and deepening the outfalls of the rivers flowing through the Level into the Wash. The Fenlands in winter were thus not only flooded by the rainfall of the fens themselves, and by the upland waters which flowed from the interior, but also by the daily flux of the tides which drove in from the German Ocean, holding back the fresh waters, and even mixing with them far inland."

It was while the Fen country was in this condition, that the most important of the "islands," or more elevated ground rising above them, -which were completely surrounded by water throughout the winter,— were taken possession of either by the founders of monastic houses or by religious solitaries, whose cells afterwards became the germs from which convents were developed. The most famous of these were Ely, Crowland, Ramsey, Thorney, Sawtrey, and Spinney. Peterborough was also a "fen" convent. The isolation of these patches of dry land, and their comparative safety, attracted the monks and hermits who first settled on them; and by whose care and labour they were gradually cultivated and made productive. The ancient order and beauty of Thorney are duly described by William of Malmesbury (see Rte. 36); and the varied riches of Ely-its corn and pasture fields, its flocks and herds, its woods and vineyards, its waters abounding in all kinds of fish, its wild animals, and the myriads of wild-fowl that haunted it are set forth at length by the chronicler of the abbey ('Liber Eliensis,' L. ii. c. 105). All this cultivation was the work of